How You Can Open a New School

The purpose of the Candidate News Page it to provide candidates in the Office of New Schools selection process with current information regarding submission guidelines and deadlines.  Find answers to some of our most commonly asked questions at our   Frequently Asked Questions page.  Please contact David Negron ( dnegron7@schools.nyc.gov ) with questions about the selection process or deadlines.

Learn More About Upcoming Events & Submissions:

 IA1 Interviews
 Phase 4 - Proposal Draft 2 
 Phase 4 - School Visits 
 Guidelines and Tips for all Written Submissions to ONS

Phase 3 (by invitation only)   

Notification of progress to Phase 3 will be by 8pm on Friday, April 26th. You will receive the date and time of your interview via email by 8pm on Friday, April 26th.

IA1 Interview       

Logistics 

• Phase 3 interviews will occur from Monday, April 29th to Tuesday, May 7th at Tweed (52 Chambers Street).
• You may bring ONE planning team member or thought partner to take notes, but they may only participate in the Q&A. 

• There will be 2-4 people on the interview team.
• You will have ten minutes to discuss your school proposal. Please emphasize your instructional vision. 
• Please remember that you are describing your school to fellow educators. You do not need to sell your idea to our team.
• Office of New Schools (ONS) and DOE staff members will ask you specific questions based on your proposal and your ten minute overview. 
• ONS staff will provide you feedback on your proposal. If you make it to make phase 4, you will be expected to integrated our feedback into your proposal draft 2. 

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Phase 4 (by invitation only)

Proposal Draft 2

The second draft of your proposal is due by 9 am on Monday, May13^th.

To see the full instructions, page limits, and question prompts for the proposal, please download the proposal prompts here (link)

Proposal Draft 2- Upload Instructions

• Please upload your completed proposal draft as a PDF or Word document on this page (link) 
• You will be required to enter your Applicant Stack username and password. 
•  Scroll down to the Attachments section and upload your “Proposal Draft2” 

Reminders:      

• Only submit one document.  Do NOT submit your proposal and lesson plan as separate documents
• Credit your sources
•  Add header with your name and page number (appears on every page) 
• Title your document with the following convention: yourname.Proposal2.doc 

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Phase 4 (by invitation only)

School Visits

• Schools visits will take place from May 16th – May 29^th.
• Visits may be scheduled for 9:30AM or 1PM and will lastapproximately 2.5 hours each.
• Applicants are typically released from their teachingduties for the duration of our visit. It will be your responsibility to arrangethis with your supervisor.
• The Office of New Schools Team will confirm a scheduled time that works best for you and your coaches.
• Applicants not currently working in a school should contact David Negron (dnegron7@schools.nyc.gov) at the Office of New Schools to make alternate arrangements.

When we come to your school, we want to see the following:

Classroom Visits: We would liketo visit 3-4 classes with you, for 5-10 minutes each, as the bulk of yourvisit. Be sure to include teachers you supervise and/or collaborate withregularly. Please plan for a variety of classrooms in terms of teachereffectiveness, content area and/or grade level, and the students’ sill levelsif applicable.  We do not need to seeonly the best classrooms in your school. We are most interested in hearing your thoughts about classrooms we seetogether. (20-30 minutes)

Meeting with your Principal:  We would like tomeet privately with your principal. Please be sure that he or she knows that you are applying to open a newschool. Sitting principals should plan for us to meet with APs or other staffmembers your directly supervise. (10-15 minutes)

Leading/Meetingwith Adults:  If at all possible, we want to see you lead ameeting or planning session with your colleagues or do a pre or post-observationwith a teacher that you are currently supervising.  Do notschedule a meeting that you do not normally have, but please make your besteffort to give us an opportunity to see you interact with your staff members.(20-30 minutes)

Meeting with Teachers:  We want to meet with two teachers you work with regularly.  You will not be present during the meeting and we will meet with the teachers separately for 5-10 minutes each. (10-15 minutes)

Talking to Students: There is no need to set up a separate meeting with students, since coaches will use opportunities to speak informally to students when possible.

Visit Debrief:  At the end of the visit, we want to sit down with you and discuss our visit and/ or your current applicant submission. (30 minutes)

• Make sure your documents are single spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, 1 inch margin on all sides
• Title your documents with the following convention: yourname.documenttitle.doc (for example: davidnegron.proposal2.doc)
• Add a header or footer that appears on every page that includes page numbers and your name 
• Use section headings and paragraphs to make your document more readable (this is especially necessary for docs longer than 2 pages!)
• Credit your sources  (formal citation form is not necessary, but let us know where your quotes and  ideas are coming from)
• Avoid jargon and define your terms
• Proofread!
•  Adhere to page limits
• Include concrete examples and details; not just abstract generalities

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